We examine how firms adjust CEO risk-taking incentives in response to risk environments as-sociated with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) standing. We find strong evidence that as a firm's CSR status improves (declines), increasing (decreasing) its risk-taking capacity, the firm...

We hypothesize that CSR serves as a control mechanism to reduce deviations from optimal risk taking, and therefore, CSR curbs excessive risk taking and reduces excessive risk avoidance. Based on the stakeholder theory, firms with CSR focus must balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, and...

We hypothesize that CSR serves as a control mechanism to curb excessive risk taking and to reduce excessive risk avoidance. Firms with CSR focus must balance the interests of multiple stakeholders, and therefore, must allocate resources to satisfy both investing and noninvesting stakeholders'...

We study investor activism promoting environmental, social and governance (ESG) improvements using a proprietary dataset. Targets have a higher market share, analyst coverage, stock returns, and liquidity. The engagements lead to ESG rating adjustments. Activism is more likely to succeed when...

Amid growing concerns for the effects that corporations have on stakeholders, supporters of stakeholder governance encourage society to rely on corporate leaders to use their discretion to protect stakeholders, and they seem to take corporate pledges to do so at face value. By contrast, critics...

We examine relationship between common institutional ownership and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that common institutional ownership is negatively associated with the level of CSR, which supports an anti-competitive view. We conduct a propensity score matching (PSM) analysis and...

While practitioners call for long-term managerial compensation to promote firms’ commitment in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, little direct evidence exists on the role managerial incentive horizon plays in firms’ ESG performance. Exploiting two alternative identification...

We propose a strategic theory of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Shareholder maximizers commit to a mission statement that extends beyond firm value maximization. This commitment leads firms (either product market competitors or complementors along the value chain) to change their actions...

We examine the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value using the takeover market as an experimental setting. Firms with extreme CSR policies experience a greater likelihood of takeover and lower wealth gains in takeovers relative to firms with moderate policies. Our...

This is an empirical study of the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), financial performance and risk at U.S. banks from 1998-2010. The results are striking. First, there is a positive relationship between CSR and both operating performance and firm value. This result is...